Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
OVER THE NEXT week some 12,000 people across the country aged 85 and over will receive their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, as the immunisation programme moves into its third phase.
The health service has said it aims to move into the next cohort – those aged 80-84 – in around three weeks’ time.
Recent advice from the country’s immunisation advisory committee (NIAC) forced the HSE to quickly shift gear to facilitate the use of two mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, rather than the less complicated AstraZeneca vaccine.
For some, this means the venue for their vaccination has also changed though the majority of patients will be able to receive their jab in their own GP’s surgery.
Who is getting the vaccine this week?
From today, people aged over 85 will receive the vaccine. Some 12,000 doses will be delivered to GP surgeries and to vaccination centres across the country.
We're heading into a more positive phase in dealing with #COVID19. We all wish we had more supplies to vaccinate quicker. But soon we'll have our most vulnerable living in care homes and in the community protected. And supplies improve from this week too. #Hope@HSELive
Speaking at a briefing last week Dr Nuala O’Connor, Covid clinical lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), said GPs will be contacting patients to let them know when their appointments are and where they should go.
“Almost everybody over 70 in Ireland is entitled to a GP GMS (General Medical Services) card, either a full one or a Doctor’s Visit Card. So that’s how we know the exact number,” she said.
“The PCRS (Primary Care Reimbursement Service) knows exactly how many over 85 patients are registered with every single GP in the country. Then we were asked to do an audit and validation exercise.
You’d have patients that are officially registered but for instance I have a lady and her mum who lives in Co Meath has been cocooning with them in Cork and she was saying ‘oh we’ll have to bring Mum up to county Meath for two doses’ and I said ‘no, we will get that’.
“We’ve a few people like that, we added them to our list and we have a few people who just chose not to get a medical card. We’ve another lady who’s from Europe who has come to stay with her family here. She’s a European citizen. There’s a few people like that.”
Dr O’Connor said the HSE sent an email to her office asking her to confirm the number on the PCRS with her own database and she replied with figures to include any additional patients.
Each GP practice will have a ‘back-up’ list for the day, with patients to call in if there are additional doses. This will ensure that there is no waste if they manage to get more than six doses out of each vial or if they have cancellations, O’Connor said.
“What we’ve done is we’ve ordered 16 vials, which will each have six doses – we can absolutely take six doses,” she explained.
“But the good news is that with the dead space syringes we will hopefully get an extra 16 doses – one dose per vial – so we will have our contingency list of the next group and we’ll have them ready.”
Which vaccine will people get?
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has advised that people aged 70 and over should only receive mRNA vaccines – such as the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna ones – where possible.
This followed guidance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which stated that there was not enough data to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in those aged over 55.
“However, protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines; as there is reliable information on safety in this population, EMA’s scientific experts considered that the vaccine can be used in older adults,” the EMA said.
Advertisement
Last week the World Health Organization recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in all adults. However, Ireland’s advisory committee has not issued any new advice.
This means that this week all 12,000 doses administered to people aged over 85 will be the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
What will the AstraZeneca vaccine be used for?
The first delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived last week and the first doses were administered from Monday to healthcare workers.
Ireland will continue to receive doses of this vaccine and over the course of this week 22,000 doses of it will be administered to frontline healthcare workers.
Where will the vaccines be administered?
The majority of people will get their vaccine at their own GP’s surgery. This week 84 practices – many with several GPs working in them – will be involved in the initial roll-out.
Smaller practices or those with fewer than 200 patients in this age group will ‘buddy up’ with other local GPs, with some grouping together at a larger practice.
The Moderna vaccine is packed in 100 doses and the Pfizer one can only be packed down to 36 doses, so these measures are to ensure no doses are wasted in practices that have fewer over 85s.
A small number of mass vaccination centres in venues such as The Helix in DCU and Cork Institute of Technology will also be used. The Helix will be used by 121 GPs this week to vaccinate 1,600 of their patients.
Next week marks a nice milestone as the vaccination of the aged 85+ living in the community starts. Most vaccinations will happen in GP practices. In @DCU 121 GPs will also come together and vaccinate 1600 of their patients in one of our vaccination centres. @HSELive@ICGPnewspic.twitter.com/ZibB3aVXUk
What about people who need to get the vaccine in their homes?
The HSE has said arrangements will be made, where possible, to transport people to their appointments if required.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Dr Denis McCauley, Chairman of the GP Committee of the IMO, said no specific arrangements have yet been made for people who are housebound.
“There is significant planning going on in the background to see if there is a way to get this very delicate vaccine to people, or whether we can get an alternative one – do we want to wait until we have access to an mRNA vaccine that is more mobile?
“The planning on this is very active, we know this is a vulnerable group.”
How long will it take to get through this entire cohort?
There are more than 480,000 people aged over 70 in Ireland, with more than 72,000 aged over 85.
HSE CEO Paul Reid has said he expects everyone in this over 70s cohort to have received their first dose by mid-April and their second dose by the middle of May.
The HSE has said during this third phase it will also go back to older people in residential care who did not receive a vaccine during the initial phases of the programme due to outbreaks or their own diagnosis with Covid-19.
Although the plans had to change significantly in a short space of time for this next phase, Dr Denis McCauley said GPs are feeling confident about their own preparedness.
“Once it gets going we’ll be fine. People have been getting their emails and putting their orders in,” he said.
“This is a new system, hopefully there won’t be any glitches and once we’ve completed one cycle of delivery everybody will be much more comfortable.”
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
TheJournal.ie's Coronavirus Newsletter
TheJournal.ie's coronavirus newsletter cuts through the misinformation and noise with the clear facts you need to make informed choices. Sign up here
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
71 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
@Seamus Mc Meel: Because I’m fairly sure the family involved here would appreciate some privacy as would you if your family were in the same situation.
@Noel Barnes: There might be a deterrent if the judiciary didn’t give lenient sentences to rapists and sex offenders and An Garda Síochána wasn’t lying through their teeth every other week about whistleblowers, breath tests, and abusing the PULSE system for a few quid off the tabloids. The Irish police force is one of the most corrupt forces in the Western World.
@Michael Knight: jesus pal travel around the western world and experience other police forces then come back and see do you still believe in your comment. See are the as corrupt as you perceive. Might take a few years to get back from what ever country you cross paths with their police tho
@Austin hickey: yeah, imagine a police force receiving a report from a medical professional that one of their officers abused a child and actually investigating it.
They should have done nothing and protected him like honest cops eh?
@Colette Kearns: I don’t think anyone should listen to Larry. So let’s all ignore him.
Intimidating the Gardaí is a stupid move by stupid people. All it will do is make them more resolute. I hope these cowardly acts earn the sickos a few extra years behind bars.
If anyone here is ok with gangs and criminality then they’re the ones with the problem.
Using the incidents involving these two Gardai to justify a call for Gardai to be armed with tasers ? What good would tasers have done in both those incidents ? Says a lot about crime detection rates when even the Gardai can’t be ar$ed reporting crimes against themselves.
@Tommy Roche: The fact that they are trained to investigate incidents like these themselves they would know if it was worth wasting scarce Garda resources investigating where there was no evidence to suggest who carried out these attacks.
@Mick Jordan: But how do they know there’s no evidence if the crime hasn’t been investigated ? Isn’t that the whole point of investigation, to find evidence ? If the incidents are as insidious as this article suggests, then surely they warrant being properly reported and investigated.
@Tommy Roche: Because they being trained investigators themselves could see that there was nothing. If I were to break your window with a stick or hammer how would know it was me, unless I left the item behind or someone saw me you would have no evidence. Likewise with slashing your tyres or keying your car.
@Tommy Roche: is that a joke or are you just stupid?
Of course serving gardai would know if it’s worth reporting or not. This may shock you but normal gardai couldn’t give a flying monkeys about crime stats, they just want to catch criminals!
This is just blatant propaganda from the gardai. It’s transparent nonsense. Somebody (a supposed source in aGS) says something to the Journal about an unnamed case & alleged intimidation, on condition of anonymity, during a period of increased scrutiny of corruption in the force. Don’t take everyone for fools. This is f_-kin tragic!
@Paul Devlin: and before people get on my case, there’s no names, no area ( bar the vague ‘north east’), no crimes, nothing to actually pin it down. It’s just vacuous propaganda. If it’s true then show us the article where the windows were out in. Put some flesh on the bone. The supposed crime gang know where they live already so where is the ham? What a pile of cr-p!
All windows smashed and he didn’t report it?? Car keyed and he didn’t report it?? It’s almost like they’ve no faith in the Gardai, or could it just be a bullish!t story…
These shites that are carrying out these attacks on gardai probably have convictions as long as their arms but for some unknown reasons, the quacks in the judiciary keep giving them suspended sentences
Gardai don’t do stats, the system they input data into does and they don’t input it trained civilian data inputters do read your inspectorate reports and also classification is as hard. Lets say your car gets broken into, your had tools taken,so theft, then you see they tried the ignition to start your car, unauthorised taking, there’s criminal damage also, maybe more all from one incident. You want to classify it as one incident its impossible at times. But Gardai turn up and investigate the crime that is their job not producing stats for the CSO that should be a bi product.
Anyway your comment was hilarious.
@Stephen Devlin: because they don’t care about crime stats which is all it would benefit. There’s no evidence and it would only waste more Garda time that they don’t have
Ireland doesn’t deserve the police it has, deserves much worse.
Unarmed, threatened off duty, badly equipped, badly led by senior officers that obtained their positions by nepotism a bunch of online cowards sniping at them for things outside their control and usually wrong.
I await the false and overly simplistic comment about being the best paid in Europe.
Two young men die, two others seriously injured in single-vehicle crash in Donegal
Updated
15 mins ago
30.9k
Oval Office
Zelenskyy leaves White House summit after Trump claims he's 'not ready for peace'
Updated
17 hrs ago
98.4k
593
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 153 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 105 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 137 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 106 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 79 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 78 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 127 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 75 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 82 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 39 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 43 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 25 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 87 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 69 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 51 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 85 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 65 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say